Cultivating White Sage Smudge Sticks

If you grow white sage you may find at this time of year your plant is getting a bit “leggy”.

‘ello ‘ello ‘ello, what have we here?

The very tall wands that are coming out – if the leaves are tiny at the tip – will flower. Unless you want to save seed, it’s best to cut this out.

This is what the flowers look like if you’re curious.

Salvia apiana in flower

Close up of white sage flower

You can dry the stem you’ve just cut because the base of it should be fairly bushy. Dry it whole with the leaves hanging upside down. If you are drying for the purposes of making a smudge stick, don’t let it dry completely before tying up, wilted really is what you’re after.

On other stems you can tip prune which will encourage more leaves out of the laterals (the bit between the stem and a main leaf) giving you a thicker smudge stick come harvest time.

The laterals are the leaves coming out from between the main stem and leaves

This is what will happen after some time.

Bushing up

The coast of California is where Salvia apiana comes from. I’ve got a theory that in it’s natural habitat it probably gets blasted by wind and stems breaking is a common occurrence (good news for those that live by the coast). Because if you have it in a sheltered position and don’t tip prune it at all, particularly in the early days~ this is what happens. One long plant.

Lone stem ranger

There’s hope yet for these guys though, find the lowest active lateral and trim from there.

Looking for laterals

So don’t be afraid to give your plant a wee trim here and there, now is a good time, whilst there’s plenty of growth action happening you’ll get a stronger plant for it. Make sure that any pruning you do is on a fine day with another one forecast for the next day.

Dry upside down, out of sunlight. This picture is blurry (sorry!) but you don’t want them any drier than what it looks here to make your smudge sticks.